Torturing Your Characters

Today, I’d like to talk a little about the horrible things we do to our characters. Being a writer, I know that in order to have any sort of story, I need to have tension and conflict, a whole bunch of problems for my characters to deal with and hopefully overcome. I put them through a lot of horrible stuff and sometimes give them their happy reward at the end.

The hardship comes with the territory. And as awful as it is to admit, I enjoy it.

Take my character Alyce Kerr. She’s a Faith Healer, and uses the power of a demon to heal people. It sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Do a little magic, draw a little magic circle, conjure up a demon, and use its power for your own gain. Well, while that did happen, it also came with a little bit of soul-sucking as payment. After all, demons don’t do things for free and no matter how clever you might think you are, they’ll more than likely (eventually) take control of the situation. Which is exactly what happened to Alyce.

She’s got a power that helps people, celebrity status, and money… but in order to keep it all, she has to let the demon Buer suck a little bit of her soul every time she heals. That way he can slowly consume her. But is that what the demon really wants? She doesn’t know what Buer really wants from her. Sure, she thinks she does, but she might be wrong. That’s why her story is a trilogy, because as the writer I’ve decided to make things harder for her with every installment.

Book One, FAITHLESS is already available and Book Two, CARELESS, has just been released. Book Three is just around the corner, too. BOUNDLESS will be available from Damnation Books on June 1. If you’d like to know more about Alyce, you can check it out here or visit my website.

As bleak as things get for her–because even her lovelife suffers a huge blow because of what’s going on in her life–I think her journey is something she had to go through. She’d lost her focus in life, and as the torture goes on, it’ll make her stronger when she gets to the other side. The Alyce Kerr, Faith Healer Trilogy deals with her trials and struggle to get rid of Buer and reconnect with her ex, but I think her world is one that I’ll be visiting in the future.

There’s always someone new to torture.

Thanks for reading! And Raine, thank you so much for having me here.

Yolanda
www.yolandasfetsos.com